A four-page White House directive will see TikTok wiped from all U.S. government tech within 30 days.
The ‘prohibition of TikTok’ enacts Division R of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 entitled: “No TikTok on Government Devices.”
Other than the convoluted, February 27, memorandum hinting at national security, and ‘malign foreign influences,’ the directive leaves out any specific reasons for the app’s prohibition.
Additionally, the memorandum’s innocuous tone suggests the “everything is racist,” Woke White House isn’t happy about the optics.
The very same people who called Trump’s valid “Chyna” travel ban in early 2020 racist, now occupy the Oval Office.
Reuters, who were given access to a guidance memorandum, said booting the app was a ‘bid to keep U.S. data safe.’
TikTok is partially owned by the CCP through its piecemeal ownership of Beijing-based, TikTok creator, ByteDance Limited.
If called upon, the Chinese Communist Party can access TikTok’s data at any time.
This Orwellian collar and leash tied around TikTok’s neck makes the app the world’s biggest mass surveillance weapon.
Countering reasoned suspicions, Reuters noted that TikTok has dismissed concerns as “misinformation.” The company also continues to deny the app is being used to “spy on users.”
The Chinese Communist Party slammed the ban, with an ironic response, railing about “wrong practice, the generalising the concept of national security, abuse of state power, and unreasonable suppressing firms from foreign companies.”
This, from a regime guilty of massive “Zero COVID” abuses, human rights violations, sanctions on Australian exports over investigations into COVID’s origins, and more (see here).
Bipartisan support for the ban shows a large majority unwilling to risk taking a Communist-compromised social media platform at its word.
The legislation is closely related to Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-Fl) ANTI-SOCIAL CCP bill.
Rubio first proposed banning the “CCP-puppet company” in 2022, arguing a prohibition would better protect against foreign influence and interference from “countries of concern.”
Such as, CCP-controlled China, authoritarian-run Russia, and Islamist Iran. As well as the sons of murderous Marxism running North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
The TikTok ban isn’t completely benign.
Signed by Shalanda D Young, the President’s current director of the Office and Budget Management, the ban also applies to any information technology which does not have an ‘approved exemption.’
Badly written, the directive says a lot without saying much at all. This gives room for loose interpretations, government abuse, and overreach.
Further North, and one day after the U.S. memorandum, Canadian authorities announced they too were ‘banning the use of the TikTok app on government-issued devices.’
Unlike the Biden administration’s garbled dictum, Canada’s announcement was pointed, and direct.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Mona Frontier, President of the Treasury Board, said TikTok was reviewed and declared an ‘unacceptable risk to privacy and security.’
Frontier added, “The decision to remove and block TikTok is being taken as a precaution, given concerns about the legal regime who governs the information collected from mobile devices. TikTok’s date collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of a smartphone.”
Both the United States and Canadian governments have said the TikTok ban could lead to a denial of service in those countries.
If further investigations raise more red flags, TikTok might be denied access to Western viewers and content providers.
Age limits on the app, and education, might be more appropriate for the so-called free world.
Banning the app outright raises red flags of its own.
Still, would a total TikTok ban be a bad thing?
Labelled “digital fentanyl” for Westerners, who put entertainment over education and exercise, TikTok looks like a Psyop.
By the very fact two versions of TikTok exist – one for Chinese audiences, another for the West – it’s clear the Chinese Communist Party know TikTok is toxic.
Back in early February, Australian/American commentator, Sydney Watson accused the app of “deliberately poisoning a generation.”
Watson’s research was built on the exposition of Substack writer, Gurwinder.
With good reason, Gurwinder argued that TikTok “may have evolved into a Chinese bio-weapon to accelerate the West’s cognitive decline.”
Caveat emptor.
